Monsters mash Rampage hopes

Another five-spot under the opponent’s name on the scoreboard signaled another frustrating night as the Herd wasted another chance to gain on fourth place Milwaukee in the AHL West.

The AHL North had allowed San Antonio a glimmer of Calder Cup hope, as the last place Grand Rapids Griffins twice denied the Admirals of two standing points. The Griffins, in front of a sellout crowd (nice to see that familiar 10,666 in the box score again), stunned Milwaukee with five third-period goals Friday night.

That nearly closed post-season door inched open a crack for the Rampage, as the Admirals were idle Saturday night with only an eight-point bulge that could have been 12 points with wins over the Griffins..

But that door slammed shut as the clock expired in the 5-4 regulation loss for S.A., leaving the Rampage down eight points with only seven games left.

The Rampage have now netted only two standing points in their last four games (0-2-1-1) and have allowed an extraordinary 20 goals in those four contests.

Giving that “finn” on the scoreboard at any time of the season is lethal.

But given that the Rampage have exceeded the three-goal max in their last 16 straight non-winning games, it behooves the local skaters to button up the defense and defuse the red light district at the Rampage end of the rink.

“Defensive zone breakdowns,” cited Rampage coach Ray Edwards. “It’s a lack of focus, a lack of level of compete, a little lack of battle, we miss a battle in front of the net, we miss an assignment when the puck’s out at the point. It’s D-zone coverage, it’s focus, it’s battle and now you’re chasing the game (coming from behind).

“We had a good push at the end. We put ourselves in that position because we did not play 60 minutes,” Edwards said. “We’re giving up too many chances. We’re not stopping the puck. We have offense. We can score some goals. But you can’t keep winning games 5-4, 6-5, you gotta defend.”

So, what does Edwards and assistant coach Mike Pelino do about the anti-defensive efforts? “You keep holding guys accountable the best you can. It’s not that they don’t know what to do, it’s a matter of executing it. Our job is to make sure they are focused every night and we’ll continue to do that,” Edwards said.

The Rampage are an amazing 1-20-1-3 when trailing after two periods. But it wasn’t for a lack of trying Saturday night. They outshot and outchanced Lake Erie in the third period, but Monster goaltender John Grahame, yep, that John Grahame of Boston Bruin and Tampa Bay Lightning fame, turned into Martin Brodeur in the final frame, stopping all but Kyle Turris’ 20th of the season with 21 seconds left in the game after an empty net goal by Lake Erie.

Defenseman Sean Sullivan, whose nice play led to Mikkel Boedker’s second-period goal with two seconds left, had a light moment in an otherwise somber Rampage locker room area.

Sullivan was hit on the lower leg by a Turris shot in the second period and struggled to get back to the S.A. bench. When asked how he was doing after the game, he quipped, “It was a Turris shot — I’m fine.”

Right, so how do you explain the 20 pounds of ice and bubble wrap around your leg?

Back at it again with the Monsters Sunday afternoon against a team also in the playoff hunt in the North Division, just four points behind Manitoba.

Cancer patients win with the Rampage

Rampage players and staff have locked horns against cancer this season by hooking up with young cancer patients.

Each Rampage player enjoyed working with a young cancer patient this season, treating them to outings at area theme parks and other activities.

Saturday night, the Rampage wore special jerseys and auctioned them off after the game to raise funds for the kids in their struggle against the dreaded disease.

Rampage broadcaster, Dan Weiss, brought the program along with him from his previous organization with the ECHL Phoenix Roadrunners, and the effort has made a nice impact in the lives of not only the youngsters battling cancer, but some rough-and-tough hockey players who seem to melt under the spell of a hurting little kid.

Jeff Smith — ref on a mission

The over and under in the pressbox on how many penalties Smith would call in the game was three, established by yours truly.

Quoting Maxwell Smart — Missed it by that much.

Smith whistled the Monsters twice — once even he couldn’t overlook early in the first period when a Rampage player was tripped right in front of him, and again in the third period, when Joel Perrault’s stick was hewn in half by a slash.

The Monsters never had a power play.

It’s nice to let the boys play, but there were many times at both ends of the rink where a penalty could have been called but was overlooked by the “skating around like he’s in Central Park” referee.

Being that the Rampage have the second-best home power play and Lake Erie has the worst road penalty kill actually may have influenced the outcome of the game by a ref NOT calling penalties.

Again, Smith is an equal opportunity non-arm-raiser, as he overlooked obvious infractions at both ends of the ice, but by keeping the Rampage’s hot PP on the bench, Smith may have helped the Monsters more than the Rampage by eating his whistle all night.